In showing good relation, the Chinese Government on Wednesday signed with Malawi the provision of humanitarian food and grant of 100 vehicles to Malawi Government.
China will provide rice worth 10 Million USD to Malawi for humanitarian food response to people who are experiencing food shortage due to dry spell caused by El Nino while the vehicles are to be used in the Malawi Police Service to combat crime.
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| Wang Shi Ting |
The Chinese Ambassador to Malawi, His Excellency Wang Shi Ting made the signing at Capital Hill in Lilongwe together with Goodall Gondwe, Malawi’s Minister of Finance and Economic Planning.
Ambassador Wang Shi Ting said at the ceremony that the food donation follows the response made to natural disaster and the resulting food shortage by His Excellency, Mr. Wang Yi, Foreign Minister of China in early February when he paid a visit to Malawi.
“His Excellency Mr. Wang Yi, the Foreign Minister of China, announced that China would provide emergency humanitarian food assistance worth sixty million Renminbi Yuan, equivalent to nearly 10 million USD to Malawi” he said
“In order to ensure the soonest the provision of the food donation, the Chinese Government started the procurement of rice prior to the signing ceremony.” disclosed Ambassador Ting while assuring “We are hoping the first batch of rice will be arriving in Lilongwe within 3 months time.”
He said China is committed to deliver the food and Chinese people hopes that the food assistance will help to alleviate the food shortage and relieve pains of people who are “Starving” now as well help in the fight against poverty.
Early this year Malawi was severely hit by dry spell which has significantly reduced food harvest. As a result, President Peter Mutharika declared in mid- April a State of National Disaster and stated that the country will require up to 1.29 million metric tons of maize to avert hunger.
“The Chinese Government will work together with the Malawian Government and people to minimize the damage of the disaster and relieve the pain of people affected by the disaster.” Assured Ambassador Wang Shi Ting
Turning to the 100 vehicles for the Malawi Police Service, Ambassador Wang Shi Ting noted that public Security has increasingly become a major concern in many African countries, including Malawi, over the past several years attributed to the global and continental economic downturn.
He said Malawian Government has been sparingly no efforts in combating rising crimes, but lack of vehicles and modern communicating equipment becomes a top constraint.
“With the purpose of supporting the capacity building of Malawian police and improve its mobility, Chinese Government agrees to supply 100 police vehicles under grant to Malawian Government” he said
As requested by the Malawian side, Ambassador Ting indicated that the vehicles include 60 pickups, 10 SUV, 10 vans, 15 Saloons, 3 trucks and 2 buses.
He also said he “believes that the police vehicles will be conducive to create a safer living and investment environment in Malawi.”
The Chinese Ambassador further reaffirmed China’s commitment to continue working with Malawi under framework of China-Africa Cooperation Forum where African countries stands to benefit from China’s Ten Cooperation Plans which were announced last year in Johannesburg during the China Africa Cooperation Summit in December.
Through the Cooperation China will among other things offer humanitarian food assistance to disaster-affected African Countries through China-Africa Agricultural Modernization Plan, and Peace and Security Cooperation Plan, under which China will strengthen capacity building in the areas of national defense, anti-terrorism, anti-riot and immigration control.
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| Goodall Gondwe |
“We are very happy because we have a problem of hunger here it will not last long, it will go but nevertheless we have a problem and therefore we need food and any donation of food is going to be very helpful." Said Goodall Gondwe, Malawi’s Minister of Finance and Economic Planning.
“On police vehicles, one of the problems we have is that in number of places police cannot do their work because of lack of transportation and the 100 vehicles are going to be very helpful. As a matter of fact we ourselves will have to buy some more vehicles on top of that because we need a lot of vehicles for police to do their work in this country.” said Gondwe
He said almost every police unit requires one or two vehicles and this may possibly be a total of more than one thousand vehicles.
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